Profile: Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (AHT)

Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. is a self-advised real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company owns its lodging investments and conducts its business through Ashford Hospitality Limited Partnership, its operating partnership. Ashford OP General Partner LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, serves as the sole general partner of the operating partnership. The Company operates in two business segments within the hotel lodging industry: direct hotel investments and hotel financing. As of December 31, 2008, it owned 97 hotel properties directly and six hotel properties through equity investments with joint venture partners, which represented 23,255 total rooms (22,913 net rooms) excluding those attributable to joint venture partners. The Company’s hotels are operated under the brands of Crown Plaza, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Sheraton and Westin. All these hotels are located in the United States.

On January 22, 2008, it formed a joint venture (the PREI JV) with Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) to invest in structured debt and equity hotel investments in the United States. As of December 31, 2008, 102 of the Company’s hotel properties were leased or owned by its wholly owned subsidiaries (collectively, such subsidiaries are referred to as Ashford TRS). Ashford TRS engages third-party or affiliated hotel management companies to operate the hotels under management contracts. As of December 31, 2008, one hotel property was leased on a triple-net lease basis to a third-party tenant who operates the hotel and it only recognizes rental income on this hotel property. As of December 31, 2008, Remington Lodging & Hospitality, L.P. and Remington Management, L.P. (collectively, Remington Lodging), managed 40 of the Company’s 103 hotel properties while third-party management companies managed the remaining 63 hotel properties.